Comment

Leonard Cohen's immense talent both as a lyricist and as a musician more generally means that any collection attempting to capture his 'essential' sound has a tough challenge. Yet this album does a fantastic job in terms of looking at the artist's whole career, with a full two discs included that feature a total of thirty-one songs. Both his 1967 work 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' and his 2001 work 'Ten New Songs' have tracks incorporated into this album, a sign of its wide scope. My personal highlights include the emotional ballads "Take This Longing" and "Who By Fire" and the synthpop-tinged new wave piece "First We Take Manhattan".